Method and system for annotation and connection of electronic documents

ABSTRACT

A method and system for annotating and linking electronic documents is described herein. Separate annotation layers or connectors are used to store each annotation or connection associated with a document in order to improve the efficiency and robustness of collaborative annotation. When a user creates an annotation for a document, a new annotation layer is generated, containing information describing the annotation. The annotation layer is separate from the annotated document. The annotation layer may be transmitted to another user without transmission of the document, thereby reducing network traffic and avoiding metadata contamination within the document itself. This facilitates real-time collaborative annotation of electronic documents by multiple users. This also facilitates robust connections between documents or other data sources, which contain information regarding both the source and target documents.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/841,771 (issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,380,235), filed on Sep. 1, 2015,the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to an improved system andmethod for annotating and linking electronic documents.

BACKGROUND

Electronic documents of various sorts are ubiquitous in modern business.These documents include text-based documents produced using wordprocessing software, presentations, graphical images, audio recordings,and video clips. It is frequently advantageous to mark-up or annotatesuch documents to indicate changes, ask questions, make comments, ornote particularly important sections of the documents. Such annotationis frequently made by adding handwritten marks to a printed copy of adocument. Text documents are also frequently annotated in wordprocessing software, where the changes or comments are tracked withinthe text document itself. Such annotations within text documents arelimited to structured text or the addition of certain types of graphicalimages. With the recent advent of touchscreens in devices such as tabletcomputers and smartphones, electronic annotation has significantlyimproved to allow free-form commenting by hand. Such annotation isgreatly preferred by many users because it offers flexibility toannotate by, for example, circling sections, drawing arrows, or drawingschematic diagrams.

Some existing tools for annotation of electronic documents exist thatallow users to add handwritten or other marks to some types ofelectronic documents. For example, the iAnnotate® software applicationby Branchfire, Inc., receives and stores user comments as part ofcertain page-based documents. The annotations become part of theannotated document, however, and cannot be sent to another user withoutsending the full document. Such approach is implemented in the widelyused Portable Document Format (PDF) file format to store annotationswithin each PDF file, regardless of whether such PDF files are processedby Adobe Acrobat® or various other programs (e.g., Preview by AppleInc.). This can lead to problems when multiple users simultaneouslyannotate copies of the same document, because neither annotated documentwill have the full set of annotations. All programs using the built-inannotation capabilities of PDF files inherently suffer from the problemsassociated with storing the annotations as part of the file, as do otherbuilt-in annotations (such as the annotation functions in MicrosoftWord®). Attempts to allow simultaneous annotation have focused onversion management approaches that attempt to frequently synchronize thedocument versions of the users or attempt to merge multiple copies ofthe document. Each of these approaches significantly increases processorusage, data transmission between users (which requires greater networkbandwidth), and complexity of the annotation software. Additionally,current approaches hinder the ability to convert documents betweendifferent formats without losing the annotations. The inventiondescribed herein is addressed to improving software tools for annotationof electronic documents.

SUMMARY

The methods, systems, and media described herein relate to annotationsand connections of electronic documents. Such annotations or connectionsmay be achieved by using annotation layers or connectors that areseparate from the electronic documents that are annotated or connected.Thus, the annotation layers or connectors may be shared between users ofdifferent computing devices without repeatedly transmitting theelectronic document. Additionally, multiple users may simultaneouslyannotate or connect documents because the annotations or connections donot change the electronic document.

According to an aspect of the invention discussed herein, a computersystem may create and present annotations to an electronic document by:receiving an electronic document; presenting the electronic document toa user of a user computing device; receiving an indication of anannotation of a portion of the electronic document from the user;generating an annotation layer including information describing theannotation; applying the annotation layer to the electronic documentsuch that the annotation overlays the portion of the electronicdocument; and/or presenting the electronic document and the overlaidannotation layer to the user. The annotation layer may be separate fromthe electronic document. Additionally, the annotation layer may beindependent of the format of the electronic document and may be storedas part or all of a separate file from the electronic document. Metadataregarding the annotation layer may be included in or with the annotationlayer.

In some embodiments, the computer system may further communicate theannotation layer to a second user computing device to be presented to asecond user. The annotation layer may be communicated in response toreceiving a selection of an option to transmit the annotation layer tothe second user. Communicating the annotation layer to the second usercomputing device may include communicating the annotation layer to aserver communicatively connected via the network to the user device andto the second user device, which server may communicate the annotationto the second user computing device. In further embodiments, the servermay communicate the annotation to the second user computing device basedupon the metadata of the annotation layer.

In further embodiments, the annotation may include a reference to aportion of a second electronic document. The reference to the portion ofthe second electronic document may also include an annotation of thesecond electronic document to be overlaid over the portion of the secondelectronic document. In such embodiments, applying the annotation layerto the electronic document may include generating a link to thereferenced portion of the second electronic document. Such link mayinclude instructions that cause the portion of the second electronicdocument to be presented when the link is selected by the user.

According to another aspect of the invention discussed herein, acomputer system may receive and communicate annotations of an electronicdocument by: receiving an electronic document; receiving an indicationof a plurality of user computing devices communicatively connected tothe one or more servers via a network, each of the plurality of usercomputing devices having a copy of the electronic document stored in alocal memory; receiving an annotation layer generated at a first usercomputing device of the plurality of user computing devices via thenetwork; determining a second user computing device of the plurality ofuser computing devices to receive the annotation layer; and/ortransmitting the annotation layer to the second user computing devicevia the network. The computer system may comprise one or more serverscommunicatively connected to the network. The computer system may alsostore the received annotation layer in a program memory of the computersystem.

The annotation layer may be associated with the electronic document andmay include information describing the annotation of the electronicdocument by a first user of the first user computing device.Additionally, transmitting the annotation layer to the second usercomputing device may not include transmitting either the electronicdocument or a copy of the electronic document to the second usercomputing device. The annotation layer may be independent of the formatof the electronic document and may be stored as part or all of aseparate file from the electronic document. The annotation layer mayfurther include metadata regarding the generation of the annotationlayer. In such embodiments, determining the second user computing deviceto receive the annotation layer may be based at least in part upon themetadata.

In some embodiments, the annotation may include a reference to a secondelectronic document. In such embodiments, the computer system mayfurther obtain a copy of the second electronic document, store the copyof the second electronic document in a program memory of the computersystem, and transmit the copy of the second electronic document to thesecond user device.

According to yet another aspect of the invention discussed herein, acomputer system may receive an electronic document; determine acoordinate space corresponding to the received electronic document thatindicates the dimensions of the received electronic document; presentthe electronic document to a user of the computer system; receive anindication of an annotation of a portion of the electronic document fromthe user; generate an annotation layer including information describingthe annotation; apply the annotation layer to the electronic documentsuch that the annotation overlays the portion of the electronicdocument; and/or present the electronic document and the overlaidannotation layer to the user via a display of the computer system. Theannotation layer may be separate from the electronic document and mayhave a coordinate space that corresponds to the coordinate space of theelectronic document. The coordinate spaces of the electronic documentand the annotation layer may include one of the following: a page-basedcoordinate space, a canvas-based coordinate space, or a time-basedcoordinate space. The annotation layer may further be independent of theformat of the electronic document and may be stored as part or all of aseparate file from the electronic document.

In some embodiments, the computer system may further receive a secondannotation layer including a description of a second annotation of asecond portion of the document from a user of another computer system,apply the received second annotation layer to the electronic documentsuch that the second annotation overlays the second portion of thedocument, and present the electronic document overlaid by the annotationlayer and by the second annotation layer to the user via the display ofthe computer system. The second annotation layer may not include theelectronic document or a copy thereof.

In further embodiments, the annotation layer may be a member of a setcomprising a plurality of annotation layers, each of which may includemetadata corresponding to the annotation layer. In such embodiments, thecomputer system may receive an indication of metadata criteriacorresponding to one or more members of the set of the plurality ofannotation layers, and select one or more annotation layers meeting thereceived metadata criteria. The one or more selected annotation layersmay then be presented to the user by overlaying the selected annotationlayers over the electronic document. Any member of the set of theplurality of annotations layers having metadata not meeting the metadatacriteria may not presented.

In yet further embodiments, the computer system may receive anindication of another annotation including a link to another document.In response to receiving such indication of another annotation, thecomputer system may generate another annotation layer includinginformation describing the another annotation and including the link tothe another document. The another annotation layer may have a coordinatespace that corresponds to the coordinate space of the electronicdocument. The another annotation layer may be applied to the electronicdocument such that the another annotation overlays the portion of theelectronic document, but all of the annotation layer, the anotherannotation layer, and the electronic document may remain separate. Theelectronic document, the overlaid annotation layer, and the anotherannotation layer may then be presented to the user via the display. Whena user selection of a portion of the another annotation is received, atleast a portion of the another document may be presented to the user viathe display using the received link.

According to yet another aspect of the invention discussed herein, acomputer system may implement an electronic document mark-up tool to:receive a first electronic document; receive from a user an indicationof a connection between a portion of the first electronic document and asecond electronic document; generate a connector indicating a connectionbetween the portion of the first electronic document and the secondelectronic document; apply the connector to the first electronicdocument such that an indication of the connection overlays the portionof the first electronic document; present the first electronic documentand the overlaid indication of the connection to the user via a displayof the computer system; receive from the user a selection of theindication of the connection; and/or present the second electronicdocument to the user in response to receiving the selection of theindication of the connection. In some embodiments, the electronicdocument mark-up tool may further cause the computer system to: applythe connector to the first electronic document such that a reverseindication of the connection overlays at least a portion of the secondelectronic document; present the second electronic document and theoverlaid reverse indication of the connection to the user via thedisplay of the computer system; receive from the user a selection of thereverse indication of the connection; and present the portion of thefirst electronic document having the overlaid indication of theconnection to the user in response to receiving the selection of thereverse indication of the connection.

The connector may remain separate from each of the first and secondelectronic documents. In further embodiments, the connector may includea reference identifying the second electronic document. The connectormay also be or include one or more annotation layers associated with thefirst electronic document or the second electronic document. Theconnector may further include information regarding the coordinate spaceof the first electronic document, in which case applying the connectorto the first electronic document may be based upon the informationregarding the coordinate space of the first electronic document. Theindication of the connection may include an indication of a targetportion of the second electronic document, in which case the connectormay indicate the target portion of the second electronic document.Moreover, the first electronic document and the second electronicdocument may be different types of documents, including any of thefollowing document types: word processing documents, publication layoutdocuments, unformatted text documents, web pages, image-based documents,slide presentations, or spreadsheets.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The figures described below depict various aspects of the applications,methods, and systems disclosed herein. It should be understood that eachfigure depicts an embodiment of a particular aspect of the disclosedapplications, systems and methods, and that each of the FIGS. isintended to accord with a possible embodiment thereof. Furthermore,wherever possible, the following description refers to the referencenumerals included in the following figures, in which features depictedin multiple figures are designated with consistent reference numerals.

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview diagram of the operation of theannotation system.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary annotation systemthat may be used to implement methods of annotating documents.

FIG. 3 illustrates a diagram of an exemplary data structure storing aplurality of annotation layers.

FIGS. 4A-B illustrate block diagrams of connections between and withindocuments using connectors and annotation layers.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary annotation creationmethod for generating new annotation layers from user annotations.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary annotationpresentation method for using annotation layers to display the annotateddocument to the user.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary annotation sharingmethod for synchronizing annotations among multiple users.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary computing system for implementing themethods as described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Although the following text sets forth a detailed description ofnumerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legalscope of the invention is defined by the words of the claims set forthat the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construedas exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment, asdescribing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if notimpossible. One could implement numerous alternate embodiments, usingeither current technology or technology developed after the filing dateof this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.

It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined inthis patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘______’ ishereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intentto limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication,beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not beinterpreted to be limited in scope based on any statement made in anysection of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To theextent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent isreferred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning,that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader,and it is not intended that such claim term be limited, by implicationor otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element isdefined by expressly reciting the word “means” and a function withoutthe recital of any structure, it is not intended that the scope of anyclaim element be interpreted based on the application of 35 U.S.C. §112(f).

Without limitation, as used herein, the term “document” includestext-based documents (including word processing document and publicationlayout documents), web pages, image-based documents, slidepresentations, spreadsheets, video or audio segments, or other mediastoring information intended to be presented together. Withoutlimitation, as used herein, the term “annotation” includes any markingor other addition to a document that is presented together with thedocument, rather than directly revising the document. Annotations mayinclude highlighting, underlining, strikethrough, circling, adding textnotes, adding figures, adding images, adding audio, or adding any othermarking or note to a document.

Overview

FIG. 1 illustrates an overview diagram of the operation of theannotation system. The left column 110 (labeled “DISPLAY”) illustrates arepresentation of display views, which may correspond to thepresentation of documents, annotation, or other information to a user.The center column 120 (labeled “DOCUMENT”) illustrates a representationof documents to be annotated. The right column 130 (labeled “ANNOTATIONLAYERS”) illustrates annotation layers associated with annotations.

The top row in each of columns 110, 120, and 130 is associated with astate of a document 122 before any annotations are received. Thedocument 122 is illustrated as a text document for simplicity, but theannotation system may operate on any sort of document, including webpages, graphical images, sound files, video files, etc. Each document122 will have a coordinate space associated with it, which coordinatespace indicates the type and dimensions of the document. For example, aletter-size (i.e., 8.5″×11″) word processing document may have acorresponding coordinate space that matches each page (e.g., an 8.5″×11″space). In some embodiments, each discrete portion (e.g., each page,each slide, each frame, etc.) of the document 122 may have a coordinatespace associated with it. The document 122 is illustrated as having onlyone page for clarity, and the content 124 of the document 122 isrepresented by lines in the document.

The annotation layer 132 is illustrated in the right column 130 asinitially not containing any information. The annotation layer 132 maybe a transparent layer matching or corresponding to the coordinate spaceof the document 122 or some part thereof (e.g., a page of the document122). Although an annotation layer 132 is illustrated as existing priorto any annotations, some embodiments may instead generate the annotationlayer 132 in response to receiving an annotation from a user.

The left column shows a display view 112 of the initial document 122without any annotations. This may be accomplished by overlaying orsuperimposing the annotation layer 132 over the document 122. Becausethe annotation layer 132 is transparent (aside from any annotationscontained therein) and shares a coordinate space with the document 122,the annotation layer 132 may be overlaid on the document 1 to presentany annotations contained therein to the user. As illustrated, thedisplay view 112 is initially identical to the document 122 because noannotations have been created.

The second row illustrates the presentation of an annotation 134received from a user of the system. The annotation 134 may be created bythe same user to which annotated display view 114 is presented, or theannotation 134 may be created by another user. When the annotation 134is created by any user, the system may generate a new annotation layeror edit an existing annotation layer 132. In either case, arepresentation of the annotation 134 may be added to the annotationlayer 132 based upon the position of the annotation within thecoordinate space. In some embodiments, the annotation layer 132 mayinclude additional metadata 142 that indicates information regarding theannotation (e.g., date and time, user who created the annotation,location of user when annotation was created, version of the document122 that was annotated, etc.). The metadata 142 may be stored in a filecontaining the annotation layer 132 in a separate portion not configuredfor display. Thus, the annotation layer 132 may store data configured tobe processed into a graphical layer including a representation of theannotation 134 and data configured to be processed into a text portioncontaining the metadata 142. Among other uses, such metadata 142 may beused to sort or filter a plurality of annotation layers, as discussedbelow.

When the annotation 134 is created by another user, the other user mayshare the annotation 134 by sending the annotation layer 132 containingthe annotation 134. Unlike existing annotation methods, the annotationlayer 132 remains separate from the document 122. Therefore, theannotation 134 may be sent between users having access to the annotateddocument 122 by sending only the annotation layer 132. As illustrated,the annotation 134 is stored only in the annotation layer 132, and thedocument 122 does not change. Because the annotations are stored in theseparate annotation layers and do not change the annotated document,this has an additional advantage of maintaining “clean” documents thatcan be transmitted to external parties without concern regardinginadvertent disclosure of annotations or annotation metadata. To presentthe annotation 134 to the user, the annotation system may apply theannotation layer 132 to the document 122 by overlaying the transparentannotation layer 132 over the document 122. The resulting annotateddisplay view 114 includes the annotation 134 over the content 124 of thedocument 122. The user views the annotation 134 as if the document 122itself had been annotated, but the annotation 134 remains within theannotation layer 132.

The third row in FIG. 1 illustrates the effect of adding a secondannotation 138 using a second annotation layer 136. Again, the document122 remains unchanged by the annotations, as shown in the middle column120. The second annotation 138 is added by generating the secondannotation layer 136, which may include metadata 144. The annotationlayer 132 remains unaltered, as shown in the right column 130. Like theannotation layer 132 and all annotation layers associated with thedocument 122, the second annotation layer 136 has a coordinate spacethat matches or corresponds to the coordinate space of the document 122.The annotations 134 and 138 may be presented in the annotated displayview 116 by overlaying both the annotation layer 132 and the secondannotation layer 136 over the document 122, while maintaining each ofthe document 122, the annotation layer 132, and the second annotationlayer 136 as separate objects.

In some embodiments, the annotations may include links to additionalinformation or external resources, such as other documents or portionsof other document. The second annotation 138 is shown in the exemplaryoverview of FIG. 1 as including a reference 139 to such additionalinformation. For example, the reference 139 may indicate a targetdocument (not shown) or a portion thereof. As another example, thereference 139 may indicate another location within the document 122,such as a location associated with the first annotation 134. Theadditional information or link to an external resource may be storedwith the metadata 144 or otherwise with the second annotation layer 136.The reference 139 may be stored as a visible or transparent marker oranchor within the second annotation layer 136, which may be coincidentwith the annotation 138. Alternatively, the reference 139 may be storedin a third annotation layer (not shown) that annotates the secondannotation layer 136. Such third annotation layer may thus take thesecond annotation layer 136 as its source document for annotations suchas reference 139 or other linking or non-linking annotations of thesorts described herein. Such embodiments may be only indirectly linkedto the document 122 through other annotation layers or may not beintended to link to the source document 122. In some embodiments, thereference 139 may be represented by a reference indicator 118 displayedto the user in the annotated display view 116. The reference indicator118 may be displayed, for example, as a pop-up box within the annotateddisplay view 116, which may be opened or closed by the user by selectingor scrolling over the location of the marker or anchor. In someembodiments, the user may select the reference indicator (or a portionthereof) to obtain or view the external resource (not shown).

From this overview illustrated in FIG. 1, it should be understood thatany number of annotation layers may be generated for a document withoutchanging the document itself. The annotations layers match or correspondto the coordinate space of the document with which they are associated.Each annotation layer, or a subset thereof, may be applied to thedocument by overlaying the annotation layers over the document, likepanes of glass, to build up the annotated document presented to theuser. Because the document remains separate from the annotation layers,multiple users may share annotations to a document by transmitting orreceiving each separate annotation layer. For example, if each useralready has access to a copy of the document, an annotation by one usermay be shared with another user by sending only the annotation layerassociated with the annotation. This significantly reduces datatransmission, allowing effectively real-time or synchronous jointannotation by multiple users. Moreover, the annotations and metadataassociated with the annotations are inherently kept separate from thedocument itself, eliminating the need to remove annotation-relatedmetadata from the document using specialized software in certaininformation-sensitive communications (e.g., negotiated contracts, pressreleases, legal briefs, etc.).

Additionally, the annotation layers are described herein as “layers”only to aid understanding and are not limited to layers of fixed orvariable dimensions. Instead, any type of data object or entry may beused to store data regarding annotations and/or connections within orbetween documents. It should be understood that the annotation layersdescribed herein may be implemented as connector objects or items thatare separate from the document 122. Such connectors may be stored asseparate files that indicate a location or position within a sourcedocument 122 and an annotation of the source document. As describedbelow, such connectors may further include an indication of a locationor position within a target document. Thereby, the annotation layers orconnectors may create a link between documents, such as by the reference139. Some annotation layers or connectors may further annotate otherannotation layers or connectors, thereby annotating or directly linkingto annotation layers or connectors. In some embodiments, the annotationlayers may not have inherent document spaces, in which case informationregarding the documents spaces of source or target documents may beincluded within the connector or may be determined when the connector isapplied to the source document 122. In embodiments in which theannotation layers are connectors between documents (or between locationswithin a document), such annotation layers or connectors may be used toconnect or link documents of different types, as discussed elsewhereherein.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary annotation system 200that may be used to implement methods of annotating documents, asdescribed elsewhere herein. The annotation system 200 may include afirst user device 210, a second user device 220, and a server 240, allconnected by a network 230. Additional user devices or servers (notshown) may be included in some embodiments. The network 230 may furtherconnect to one or more external data sources 250 that may be linked toannotations by references such as reference 139. Each of the userdevices 210 and 220 may be computing devices, such as workstations,desktop computers, notebook computers, tablet computers, smartphones,wearable computers, or other computers capable of storing data andexecuting instructions. The server 240 may be one of a plurality ofinterconnected servers configured to store or transfer data via thenetwork 230. In some embodiments, the server 240 may serve as theprimary repository of data regarding the document 122 and associatedannotation layers 132 and 136, which may be accessed by the user devices210 and 220 in a cloud computing or thin-client system. The network 230may be any public or private communication network capable oftransmitting computer-readable data, including local area networks, widearea networks, or the Internet.

The first user device 210 may store local copies of the document 122 andthe annotation layers 132 and 136 in a memory 212, which may also storeone or more additional documents or annotation layers. For example, thememory 212 may store local copies of external resources, such as linkeddocuments indicated by references in the annotation layers. In someembodiments, the memory 212 may store additional document not associatedwith the document 122 or any annotation layers, which documents may belater linked or annotated by the user. The memory 212 may likewise storeprograms or applications. The first user device 210 may execute anannotation application 214 (instructions defining which may be stored inthe memory 212) to perform some or all of the aspects of the annotationmethods described elsewhere herein. The annotation application 214 maycontrol one or more processors of the first user device 210 to generateand display a local annotated document 218 to the user by receiving,selecting, and applying the annotation layers (such as annotation layers132 and 136) to the document (such as document 122). The local annotateddocument 218 may be generated and stored in a memory cache or may existonly when the document and annotation layers are combined by a GPU toproduce an output signal to be presented via a display (not shown) ofthe first user device 210. The annotation application 214 may further beconfigured to receive new annotations from the user via an input (notshown) and generate annotation layers associated with the receivedannotation. The document or annotation layers may be sent and receivedvia the network 230 using a communication module 216, which may includesoftware and hardware components.

The second user device 220 may likewise include local copies of thedocument 122 and the annotation layers 132 and 136 in a memory 222,which may also store one or more additional documents or annotationlayers, as well as other application or programs. An annotationapplication 224 may execute on one or more processors of the second userdevice 220 to implement any of the document annotation methods describedherein to generate and display a local annotated document 228 to theuser of the second user device 220. A communication module 226 maylikewise establish and manage communications between the second userdevice 220 and the first user device 210 or the server 240 via thenetwork 230. Through such communications, the local annotated documents218 and 228 may be periodically, continuously, or occasionallysynchronized to include annotations made by users of both user devices210 and 220. Such synchronization may be facilitated by the server 240,which may receive, store, and send copies of annotation layers from aplurality of users and user devices.

The server 240 may, in some embodiments, store copies of the document122 and annotation layers 132 and 136 in a memory or data storagedevice. The one or more processors of the server 240 may execute aserver application 242 that manages the files and connections with userdevices. The server application 242 may further maintain informationrelating to user accounts and permissions of users or user devices toaccess, edit, replace, or delete documents 122 or annotation layers 246.For example, annotation layers 246 may be associated with permissionlevels for certain authorized users, such that only specificallyauthorized users may view the annotations. Similarly, each documentstored on the server 240 may be associated with a list of authorizedusers or user devices, which list may further specify permission levels(e.g., read-only, create annotations, or full read-write access). Insome embodiments, the server 240 may also execute a web serverapplication 244 that allows access to files such as the document 122 andthe layers 246 through a web browser. Regardless of the method ofaccessing the files, the user devices 210 and 220 may access documents122 and annotation layers 246 stored on the server 240 via the networkusing any known communication protocol to receive new annotation layersor updated versions of documents.

The server 240 may also receive new or revised annotation layers ordocuments via the network 230, which may then be stored on the server240 or in a memory device communicatively connected to the server 240.When a new or revised annotation layer is received from a user device,the server 240 may automatically transmit the annotation layer to allother communicatively connected user devices. Additionally, oralternatively, each user device may periodically query the server 240 todetermine whether any new or revised annotation layers 246 are availableand to receive the new or revised annotation layers 246. For example,upon generation of a new annotation layer from a user annotation, thefirst user device 210 may transmit the new annotation layer via thenetwork 230 to the server 240. The server 240 may then store the newannotation layer and transmit the new annotation layer to the seconduser device 220 via the network, or the second user device 220 maytransmit a request for any new annotation layers to the server 240. Asan example of such polling method of requesting new annotation layersfrom the server 240, the second user device 220 may transmit a messageto the server 240 periodically (e.g., every second) that includes a listof all annotation layers associated with the document 122 stored locallyin the memory 222 of the second user device 220. Upon receiving suchrequest from the second user device 220, the server 240 may determinewhether any additional annotation layers associated with the document122 are stored in the memory of the server 240. If any new annotationlayers are found (that the user of the second user device 220 haspermission to access), the server 240 may then transmit the newannotation layers to the second user device 220. Because the file sizeof each annotation layer in the set of annotation layers 246 issignificantly smaller than the document 122 and set of all annotationlayers 246, the amount of data transmitted through the network 230 foreach annotation is greatly reduced. Thus, each annotation may beseparately transmitted in a separate annotation layer, therebyfacilitating approximately real-time transmission of annotations betweenthe first and second user devices 210 and 220.

Although the annotation layers are discussed herein as distinct andseparate files, the annotation layers may similarly be stored asseparate entries in a memory or database in some embodiments. Suchcombined storage of a plurality of annotation layers in some embodimentsmay nonetheless involve maintaining each annotation layer separatelywithin the memory or database, as well as separately communicatingindividual annotation layers via the network 230. When transmittingannotation layers via the network 230, the server 240 or user device 210or 220 may extract the information regarding the individual annotationlayer from the memory or database and package the individual annotationlayer in an object to be transmitted via the network 230. Upon receiptof such transmitted object, information regarding the individualannotation layer may be extracted from the transmitted object and addedto the memory or database. An individual annotation layer may thus becommunicated and stored in such manner as to remain separate from thedocument and other annotation layers, even though the annotation layersmay be stored together (e.g., as rows in a table within a database or asseparate tables within a database). Moreover, annotation layers storedtogether in a database may reference separate files for part of eachannotation layer (e.g., graphical files storing hand-drawn annotationsreceived from a user).

FIG. 3 illustrates a diagram of an exemplary data structure 300 storinga plurality of annotation layers. Although the annotation layers may beany of the annotation layers 246, the annotation layers 132 or 136 arerespectively illustrated as rows 321 and 322. The exemplary datastructure 300 is illustrated as a table 302, including a documentidentifier column 304, several annotation layer identifier columns 306,and several metadata columns 308. Entries are shown in each column forrows 321 and 322, but additional rows corresponding to furtherannotation layers (not shown) may be included. The structure of the datastructure 300 is exemplary only, and many other alternative datastructures containing the same or similar information may be used. Forexample, fewer, additional, or alternative columns may be included insome embodiments. Alternatively, information similar to that included inthe illustrated columns may instead be included as formatted textentries in separate files for each annotation layer. Moreover, theentries used are exemplary only, and any type, format, or manner ofentries may be used in various embodiments.

For each row in the table 302, the document identifier column 304(labeled “DOC”) indicates the document corresponding to the annotationlayer stored in that row. Thus, the rows 321 and 322 (corresponding tothe annotation layers 132 and 136) both contain entries in the documentidentifier column 304 identifying document 122 (identified as “D0122”).Other annotation layers associated with other documents would containother entries identifying other documents.

Similarly, the annotation layer identifier columns 306 contain entriesidentifying the annotation layer for each row. These columns may includea column (labeled “AName”) storing a name for the annotation layer (suchas a default name or a name entered by a user), a column (labeled“ALocation”) storing an annotation location indicating the locationwithin a file director structure of files associated with the annotationlayer, and an annotation column 310 (labeled “ALayer”) storinginformation regarding the annotation or annotations of the annotationlayer. For example, the annotation column 310 may include a reference toa file containing the annotation associated with each annotation layer.As illustrated, the annotation column 310 includes a reference to file“A00132.BFC” associated with annotation layer 132 in row 321 and areference to file “A00136.BFC” associated with annotation layer 136 inrow 322. The files “A00132.BFC” and “A00136.BFC” may be includecomputer-readable instructions corresponding to graphicalrepresentations of the annotations 134 and 138 for each respectiveannotation layer 132 and 136, both of which may be stored in directory“/AL/D0122” associated with the document 122. Additionally, oralternatively, the annotation column 310 may include an entry includingcontaining the information needed to apply the annotation to thedocument (e.g., location coordinates, size, and content of theannotation). Thus, a text annotation may be stored as coordinatesindicating the beginning position within the document 122 and a textstring to be displayed, or a line may be represented by origin andterminal coordinates within the document 122. As noted above, theannotation column 310 may be implemented as multiple columns in someembodiments.

The metadata columns 308 may contain metadata regarding each annotationlayer. This may include information regarding the author, time, date andstatus of the annotation layer. For example, row 321 illustrates thatannotation layer 132 was authored by user 1 at 8:32 on Jun. 12, 2015.The status metadata may indicate whether the permissions associated witheach annotation, such as whether access or editing rights are restrictedto a subset of users or whether all users of the system are permitted toaccess and edit the annotation layer. Additionally, in some embodiments,the status metadata may indicate whether an annotation layer is current,archived, restricted, or marked for deletion. The illustrated metadatacolumns also include a reference column 312 indicating a reference 139to another document or external data source. The external data sourcemay be any source of information not contained within the document 122.For example, row 322 illustrates a reference 139 to a location withanother document as an entry “DOC273@p3.475.128,” which may indicate aposition on page 3 of a target document identified with the number “273”in the document identifier column 304. To indicate the location withinthe document, the reference 139 may further indicate a document spaceassociated with the target document. In some embodiments, the reference139 may include an indication of a particular location within thedocument 122, such as another page than the page on which the reference139 is anchored or positioned. Additionally, or alternatively, thereference column 312 may include links or connectors that includeinformation regarding the connection between documents, as describedbelow.

Document Connectors

The annotation layers may also be used in conjunction with connectionsbetween documents, such as the reference 139 discussed above. Bydecoupling the annotations from the document to be annotated, theannotation layers may be further used to make connections betweendocuments of the same or different types. Such annotation layers asconnectors remain separate from each document, so they likewise achievethe same advantages of improved portability and reduced network resourceutilization (due to their smaller size), as discussed elsewhere herein.Additionally, using annotation layers as connectors between documentsfurther allows the creation of format-independent and information-richconnections with or between documents. For example, by adding annotationinformation regarding the referenced target document, the annotationlayer may provide a context or explanatory annotation to the connection.Moreover, the annotation layer may serve as a bidirectional link betweenthe two documents, such that each document links to a particular portionof the other document using the same annotation layer. This creates arobust connection because changing the annotation on one documentautomatically updates the connection from the other document. Althoughsuch connections are described below as being between separate documentsfor the sake of clarity, such connections may also be made betweensections of the same document. Similarly, such connections may be madebetween a document and an annotation layer, between an annotation layerand a document, or between annotations layers.

FIGS. 4A-B address the use of annotation layers as connectors within andbetween documents. FIG. 4A illustrates a block diagram of connectionsbetween a plurality of documents A-D, which may be of the same type orof different types. For example, document A may be a page-based wordprocessing document, while documents B and C may be canvas-basedspreadsheet or web page and document D may be a time-based video. Eachof the connectors 1-18 indicates a connection between a location withina document A, B, C, or D and another location within the same or anotherdocument A, B, C, or D. Each of the connectors 1-18 is illustrated as anarrow originating at a source document to a target document to show thedirection of the connection. For example, connector 2 is shown as anarrow extending from document A (the source document) to document B (thetarget document) to indicate a connection wherein target document B isreferenced in an annotation layer associated with source document A. Thesource document and target document may be the same document A, B, C, orD for some connectors. For example, connector 1 indicates a connectionbetween a first location within document A and a second location withindocument A by an arrow looping from document A as the source documentback to document A as the target document. The connectors 1, 3, 14, 16,and 18 each contain references in which the source document and thetarget document are the same document, while connectors 2, 4, 5, 6, 7,8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, and 17 each contain references in which thetarget document is a separate document from the source document.

The connectors 1-18 may connect portions of the documents A-D in variousmanners using annotation layers. For example, an annotation layerassociated with the source document may include a reference directly toa portion of the target document. The connector 1 may be an annotationlayer of document A or a reference within an annotation layer ofdocument A (such as reference 139 within annotation layer 136) thatindicates a portion of document A as the target (e.g., a page,paragraph, or figure within document A). Thus, the connector 1 may be apart of an annotation layer of document A that simply references alocation within document A. In such embodiments, a separate annotationlayer may be created in document A to provide additional informationregarding the portion of document A that was referenced by connector 1.In such embodiments, the separate annotation layer may be displayedwhenever the associated portion of document A is presented to the user(according to user preferences).

Alternatively, the connector 1 may include a reference in a firstannotation layer of document A (such as reference 139 in annotationlayer 136 of document 122) specifying a second annotation layer as thetarget document (such as annotation layer 132). In such embodiments, theconnector may reference or link to the second annotation layerassociated with a portion of the same or another document. For example,the connector 1 may be a reference in the first annotation layer ofdocument A identifying the second annotation layer of document A. Whenthe first annotation layer is applied to document A, a link (such asreference indicator 118) may be presented based upon connector 1. If theuser selects the link, the second annotation layer may be applied to thecorresponding portion of document A. If the second annotation layerincludes mark-up or other annotations (such as the annotation 134 ofannotation layer 132), such annotations may be presented to the user asthe second annotation layer overlaid on the document A.

As yet another alternative, the connector 1 may be separate from the oneor more annotation layers associated with document A. Instead, theconnector 1 may indicate the source document and the target document,which may include indications of locations within each of the source andtarget documents. As above, either or both of the source and targetdocuments of connector 1 may be either the document A itself or anannotation layer associated with document A. For example, the connector1 may include an indication of a location within document A as theportion of the document A as the source document to be linked to anannotation layer of document A, and the connector 1 may further includean indication of the annotation layer as the target document. As anotherexample, the connector 1 may include an indication of a first annotationlayer of document A as the source document and an indication of a secondannotation layer of document A as the target document. Thus, theconnector 1 may be separate from the annotation layers and thedocuments. For example, the connectors 1-18 may be separate filesindicating annotation layers or documents, or the connectors 1-18 may beseparate entries in a database (such as a table of connectors thatreferences one or more additional tables of annotation layers). Forexample, the connector 1 may include an indication of annotation layer136 as the source document and an indication of annotation layer 132 asthe target document. Such connector 1 may or may not include anindication of the document 122 (document A) associated with each of theannotation layers 132 and 136, as the annotation layers 132 and 136 mayeach include indications of the portions of document 122 with which theyare associated.

As a still further alternative, one or more of the connectors 1-18 mayinclude both an annotation layer associated with the source document andan annotation layer associated with the target document. In suchembodiments, the connector 1 may include not only indications of theannotation layers associated with the document A but may include theannotation layers within the connection. For example, the connection maybe created by generating a first annotation layer associated with thesource document (including a reference or link within the annotationlayer) and generating a second annotation layer associated with thetarget document. Alternatively, the connection may be created byincluding information regarding the connection (e.g., the reference 139)and information regarding the source and target documents within a file.The connector may thus include both the first and second annotationlayers with the connector or may include alternative informationregarding the annotations within both documents from which annotationlayers could be generated, if desired. The second annotation layer mayinitially be generated without any annotations or references, such asillustrated in FIG. 1 by the annotation layer 132 in the first row,prior to receiving the annotation 134. Annotations may, of course, beadded to either the first or second annotation layers.

FIG. 4B illustrates a block diagram of a connector 2 linking a sourcedocument A to a target document B by annotation layers 30 and 40,respectively associated with the documents A and B. The first annotationlayer 30 is associated with the document A and contains at least areference 32 indicating a portion of the annotation layer 30 that islinked to the target document B. The reference 32 of the firstannotation layer 30 is linked to the second annotation layer 40associated with document B by the connector 2. The connector 2 may linkthe first annotation layer 30 to the second annotation layer 40 in anyof the manners discussed herein. In some embodiments, the connector 2may link the reference 32 of the first annotation layer 30 to anannotation 42 of the second annotation layer 40.

To share annotations or connections of the documents A and B asdiscussed elsewhere herein, the connector 2 may be communicated betweenuser devices 210 and 220 via the network 230. For example, a connector 2created at the first user device 210 may be transmitted via the network230 to the server 240 and from the server 240 to the second user device220. Communicating the connector 2 may include transmitting only theconnector 2 in some embodiments in which the necessary annotation layers30 and 40 are already available at the second user device 220. In otherembodiments, one or more of the annotation layers 30 and 40 may betransmitted together with the connector 2, either as part of theconnector 2 or as separate annotation layers. In further embodiments,one or more of the documents A and B may be communicated only whennecessary, viz. when at least one of the documents A or B is notavailable at the second user device 220. In some embodiments, the sourcedocument A or the target document B may be identified by reference to anexternal location, or a copy of the source document A or the targetdocument B may be transmitted to the server 240, where it may be stored.A copy of the source document A or the target document B may then betransmitted from the server 240 to the second user device 220 uponrequest.

As discussed elsewhere herein with respect to annotation layers, theconnectors 1-18 may connect documents regardless of the coordinatespaces or formats of the documents. For example, the document A may be aword process document having a page-based coordinate space, and thedocument B may be another type of page-based document (e.g., a slidepresentation or publication layout format, such as the Portable DocumentFormat) or another type of document (e.g., a spreadsheet or web page).Because the connectors and/or annotation layers exist separately fromthe documents A and B, the connector 2 may be used to connect andannotate the documents A and B, even where the documents A and B are ofdifferent types, coordinate spaces, or formats. Moreover, by includingcoordinate space information in the connector 2 or the annotation layers30 and 40, the connection may be made directly between portions of thedocuments A and B. As yet a further advantage, the connector 2 permitsreverse linking from the target document B to the source document A. Aspreviously noted, the connector 2 is not embedded within the sourcedocument A, instead the connector 2 indicates both document A and B (orthe annotation layers 30 and 40 associated with documents A and B). Byremaining separate from the documents A and B, the connector allowsbi-directional connection between the documents, such that a user mayselect the annotation 42 associated with document B in order to find theportion of document A that references document B through connector 2.This operates in contrast to known linking techniques (e.g., HTML or XMLlinks), which provide only unidirectional connections from a sourcedocument to a target document because they are embedded within thesource document.

Annotation Layers

The following description generally relates to the generation, storage,transmission, and use of annotation layers. FIG. 5 addresses thecreation of annotation layers by a user. FIG. 6 addresses the use ofannotation layers in presenting annotations to a user. FIG. 7 addressessharing of annotation layers between multiple users of the annotationsystem. Each of the following methods may be implemented, separately orin conjunction, using the exemplary annotation system 200, describedabove. The various exemplary methods described herein may be implementedusing any or all of the first user device 210, the second user device220, or the server 240. In addition, each document may be the document122, and each annotation layer may be one of the annotation layers 246(including annotation layers 132 and 136). Although the annotationlayers are discussed below as annotating a document 122 such as a textdocument for the sake of clarity, annotation layers described herein maylikewise annotate other annotation layers. Thus, annotation layers maylikewise serve as the source document to be annotated in someembodiments. For example, a comment made in a first annotation layer mayitself be edited or linked in a second annotation layer.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary annotation creationmethod 500 for generating new annotation layers from user annotations.The exemplary annotation creation method 500 may also be used to modifyor edit existing annotation layers, in some embodiments. The document tobe annotated is presented to the user at block 502, which may includepresentation of existing annotation layers as discussed elsewhereherein. The user may then input an annotation, such as by drawing anannotation on a touchscreen display, which is received by the userdevice at block 504. The received annotation is then processed togenerate an annotation layer 506 that can be used to replicate theannotation. Metadata regarding the annotation may be added to theannotation layer at block 508, and the annotation layer may be storedlocally or remotely at block 510. The stored annotation layer may bepresented to the user or may be transmitted to another user, asdescribed further elsewhere herein. Although the following descriptionof the exemplary annotation creation method 500 refers to creating a newannotation layer for the document 122 at the first user device 210 forclarity, such description is not intended to be limiting. Annotationlayers may be created at any of a plurality of user devices or serversfor any of a plurality of documents.

At block 502, one or more documents may be presented to one or moreusers via user devices. For example, the document 122 may be presentedto the user of the first user device 210. Presentation of the document122 may include presentation of one or more existing annotation layersavailable at the first user device 210, which presentation may becontrolled by the annotation application 214. For example, the firstuser device 210 may include the annotation layer 132 stored in the localmemory 212. If the user has chosen to filter the annotation layers or ifthe user only has permission to view a limited subset of annotationlayers, only the appropriate subset of annotation layers may bepresented to the user. Other annotation layers 246 may not be presentedif they are unavailable to the user or if the user has selected not toview them. Presentation of the document 122 (and the annotation layer132) may include display of the document 122 (and annotation layer 132)via a display 812 of the first user device 210, as discussed elsewhereherein.

At block 504, the user may enter an indication of an annotation into thefirst user device 210. The indication of the annotation may be receivedvia an input 814 of the first user device 210, such as a keyboard,mouse, track pad, touchscreen display, camera, or microphone. Forexample, the user may enter an indication of the annotation 138 bymarking the annotation on a touchscreen. The annotation 138 may beprocessed by the first user device 210 and received by the annotationapplication 214. As used herein, the terms “annotation” and “annotate”may refer to either or both of an action of the user in entering anindication of intended content to be added to the document or arepresentation of the intended content in a computer-readable format.For example, the user may annotate the document 122 by drawing marksupon a touchscreen displaying the document 122, which marks may beinterpreted by hardware or software modules of the first user device 210and communicated as an annotation in a computer-readable format to theannotation application 214. Annotations may include free-form markings,pre-defined stamps, text, images, sounds, video clips, or any other typeof information. In some embodiments, the user may further specify a linkor reference 139 to another document or external data source, which maybe included with the annotation 138 in the annotation layer 136generated at block 506.

At block 506, the annotation layer 136 corresponding to the annotation138 may be generated by the annotation application 214 of the first userdevice 210. The annotation application 214 may generate the annotationlayer 136 by creating a file including an indication of the coordinatespace of the annotation layer 136 (corresponding to the coordinate spaceof the document 122) and indications of the location, type, and contentof the annotation 138 to be included in the annotation layer 136. Forexample, the annotation layer 136 may be generated by creating a file oran object storing information sufficient to recreate the annotation 138in a transparent layer to be overlaid upon the document 122. Part or allof this information may be stored in general-use or special-purposecomputer-readable text, graphics, or audio file formats. Alternatively,the annotation layer 136 may be generated by adding an entry into adatabase storing annotation layers, as described above.

At block 508, the annotation application 214 may generate and add themetadata 144 associated with the annotation 138 to the annotation layer136. As discussed above, the metadata 144 may include informationrelating to the creation of the annotation layer 136, including theidentity of the user of the first user device 210, the date and time ofthe annotation 138, an indication of the document 122 or a version ofthe document 122, restrictions or permissions for viewing or editing theannotation layer 136, any external resources referenced in theannotation layer 136, a screen size of the display 812, an orientationof the display 812, or other information regarding how, when, where, orby whom the annotation 138 was created. As discussed above, the metadata144 may be included within the annotation layer 136, appended to theannotation layer 136, or otherwise associated with the annotation layer136.

At block 510, the annotation layer 136 may be stored in the local memory212 of the first user device 210. The annotation layer 136 may be storedas a separate file within the local memory 212 in order to facilitatecommunication and presentation of the annotation 138 included therein.In some embodiments, the annotation layer 136 or a reference to theannotation layer 136 may be stored or recorded in a database within thelocal memory 212, such that the annotation layer 136 may be obtained byquerying the database. In some embodiments, the annotation layer 136 maybe combined with other annotation layers available at the first userdevice 210 to generate a temporary combined annotation layer to reduceprocessing time needed to present the annotation layers. This may beparticularly useful when a large number of annotation layers arepresented. Such temporary combined annotation layer may be stored involatile memory of the first user device 210, such as the RAM 824. Infurther embodiments, the annotation layer 136 may be sent to the server240 via the communication network 230 by the communication module 216,and the server 240 may store the annotation layer 136 in a programmemory 860 or a database 846 for access or transmission to a userdevice.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary annotationpresentation method 600 for using annotation layers to display theannotated document to the user. The annotation presentation method 600may begin with receipt of the document at block 602. The documentcoordinate space may then be determined at block 604, and one or moreannotation layers may be received at block 606. Of the receivedannotation layers, one or more may be selected to be presented at block608, such as when a user filters the annotation layers using themetadata. In some embodiments, such filtering or selection may occurbefore receiving the one or more annotation layers at block 606 in orderto avoid receiving annotation layers that will not be displayed. Oncethe annotation layers to be presented have been determined and theannotation layers received, the appropriate annotation layers may beapplied to the document at block 610 to generate an annotated documentto be presented to the user at block 612. The annotation layers may beapplied by overlaying each annotation layer over the document in asequential manner to show annotations floating on top of the document,without changing the document itself. Although the following descriptionof the exemplary annotation presentation method 600 refers to presentingannotation layers 132 and 136 of the document 122 at the first userdevice 210 for clarity, such description is not intended to be limiting.Any number of annotation layers associated with any number of documentsmay be presented at any of a plurality of user devices or servers forany of a plurality of documents.

At block 602, the annotation application 214 of the first user device210 may receive the document 122. The document 122 may be received froman external source (such as the server 240) or may be received from thelocal memory 212 of the first user device 210. In some embodiments,receiving the document 122 may include generating a new document orimporting a document from another application or program executing onthe first user device 210. The annotation application 214 may create acopy of the document 122 in some embodiments, particularly when thedocument 122 is stored on the server 122 in a cloud computingarrangement. In further embodiments, the document 122 may be convertedfrom one format to another format or may be otherwise processed (e.g.,by applying optical character recognition routines to identify textwithin the document).

At block 604, the annotation application 214 may determine thecoordinate space corresponding to the document 122. This may includeprocessing the document 122 to determine the document type, duration(e.g., number of pages, number of slides, number of frames, number ofcolumns or rows, etc.), size (e.g., paper size, number of pixels, columnwidth, frame width and height, etc.), or other information regarding thedimensions of the document 122. The document type may indicate a generaltype of document, such as page-based, canvas-based, or time-based. Apage-based document includes one or more pages of definite size, such aspages in a text document generated by word processing software (e.g.,Microsoft Word® documents), publication layout software (e.g., AdobeAcrobat® documents), slide presentation software (e.g., MicrosoftPowerPoint® documents), or other software for generating or displayingdocuments consisting of a number of pages of definite size. Acanvas-based document includes a fixed origin point, with all othercoordinates determined relative to such fixed origin point. Canvas-baseddocuments do not have limited height or width, but instead can be of anyheight or width (measured in distance from the origin point) that isdetermined to be necessary based upon the content. A web page in HTML isan example of a canvas-based document, with the origin point fixed inthe upper left corner and all content being (directly or indirectly)described relative to that point. A time-based document includes aplurality of components to be presented at different times, such as aplurality of frames in a video file. Each point in time containsinformation, such as a frame or a sound. In addition to the type, thesize of each page, canvas, or frame may be determined as part of thecoordinate space. The size may be determined relative to an externalmeasure, such as the height and width of a page measured in inches ormillimeters. The size may additionally or alternatively be measuredrelative to the presentation on a display device, such as the number ofpixels covered or a distance along the surface of a screen. In someembodiments, information regarding the coordinate space may be read fromthe metadata 142 or 144 associated with the annotation layers 132 or 136associated with the document 122, which may require first receivingannotation layers at block 606.

At block 606, the annotation application 214 may receive one or moreannotation layers associated with the document 122, such as theannotation layers 132 and 136. The annotation layers 132 and 136 may bereceived by accessing the local memory 212 of the first user device 210.The annotation layers 132 and 136 may alternatively be received from asource external to the first user device 210 via the network 230, suchas the server 240. The first user device 210 may request annotationlayers from the server 240 or may automatically receive new annotationlayers from the server 240 without sending a request. In someembodiments, the server 240 may receive or maintain a list of annotationlayers available at the first user device 210. In other embodiments, theuser device 210 may transmit a list of annotation layers stored in thelocal memory 212. The server 240 may then send the user device 210copies of only those annotation layers associated with the document 122that are not available at the first user device 210 (i.e., the server240 may transmit via the network 230 files corresponding to onlyannotation layers stored at the server 240 but not in the local memory212 of the first user device 210). The server may further request newannotation layers stored at the first user device 210 but not stored atthe server 240. In a preferred embodiment, each annotation layer isreceived by the annotation application 214 as separate computer-readablefiles. Each file containing a separate annotation layer may include anindication of the document 122 with which the annotation layer isassociated in the metadata contained within the file. In someembodiments, a look-up table or database may be used to recordassociations between annotation layers and documents. Additionally, oneor more of the annotation layers 132 and 136 may be received from theuser by creating a new annotation layer, as discussed above.

At block 608, the annotation application 214 may determine one or moreannotation layers to apply to the document 122 from the receivedannotation layers. The user of the first user device 210 may selectspecific annotation layers to present or may deselect annotation layersnot to present. In further embodiments, the user of the first userdevice 210 may select or set criteria indicating whether annotationsshould be presented based upon metadata associated with the annotationlayers. For example, the user may provide an indication that onlyannotation layers associated with one or more specified users should bepresented. As another example, only annotations associated with thecurrent version of the document 122 may be presented by default. As yetanother example, the user may select a time period according to whichannotation layers should be presented, such as only presentingannotation layers that were created after the time at which the userpreviously reviewed the document 122. Additional or alternative metadatacriteria may be used to filter the annotation layers to determine whichannotation layers are to be applied to the document 122 and presented tothe user.

In some embodiments, the annotation layers may be stored at the server240 and transmitted to the first user device 210 only as needed, inwhich case the annotation application 214 may transmit metadata criteriato the server 240 via the network 230 prior to receiving the annotationlayers at block 606. In response to receiving a request indicating themetadata criteria, the server application 242 may then determine whichannotation layers 246 stored at the server 240 should be transmitted tothe first user device 210. In an embodiment in which the first userdevice 210 operates as a thin client with respect to the annotationapplication 214, for example, the document 122 or annotation layers 132and 136 may be stored only temporarily in the local memory 212, suchthat the document 122 or annotation layers 132 and 136 must be receivedfrom the server 240 each time the annotated document is presented to theuser by the annotation application 214. In a further embodiment, theserver 240 may apply the selected annotation layers to the document 122prior to sending the combined annotated document to the first userdevice 210. In some further embodiments, the server application 242 maycombine one or more annotation layers prior to transmission in order tofurther reduce the amount of data communicated over the network 230. Ifa received annotation layer to be applied to the document 122 includes areference 139 to an external document or data source, the annotationapplication 214 or server application 242 may further obtain a copy ofpart or all of such referenced external material from the external datasource 250.

At block 610, the annotation application 214 may apply the annotationlayers that were determined at block 608 to the document 122 to producean annotated document. For example, if the layers 132 and 136 had beenselected at block 608 from the annotation layers 246, the annotationapplication 214 applies the annotation layers 132 and 136 to thedocument 122 at block 610. To apply the annotation layers to thedocument, the annotation application 214 may cause the document and theannotations to be rendered by one or more processors 820 of the firstuser device 210. The one or more processors 820 may be generalprocessors or specialized processors, such as within a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU). In a preferred embodiment, the annotation layers132 and 138 are transparent (aside from the annotations 134 and 138) andare applied by overlaying the annotation layers upon the document 122 toproduce the annotated document shown in the annotated display view 116.By analogy, the annotation layers are applied like panes of glass ortransparent plastic having markings drawn thereon, which may be stackedon top of the document 122 to show the annotations without changing thedocument 122.

In some embodiments, the annotations may be iteratively applied suchthat later-applied annotation layers overlay earlier-applied layers. Forexample, the annotation layer 132 may first be applied to the document122, producing a partially annotated document as shown in the annotateddisplay view 114; then the annotation layer 136 may be next applied tothe partially annotated document (the document 122 and the annotationlayer 132), producing the annotated document as shown in the annotateddisplay view 116. If a later-applied annotation layer includes anannotation that overlaps an annotation in an earlier-applied annotationlayer, the annotation of the later-applied annotation layer may overlayand obscure the annotation of the earlier-applied annotation layer. Infurther embodiments, characteristics of the annotations may be applieddifferently based upon the metadata associated with each annotationlayer. For example, annotation layers associated with different users ordifferent time periods may be assigned different colors when applied tothe document. Each annotation within an annotation layer may bedisplayed in the color assigned to the annotation layer when theannotated document is presented to the user at block 612.

Because the annotation layers are separate from the document 122, theannotation layers may be applied to documents in any format. Once thecoordinate space of the document 122 or copy of the document 122 isdetermined, annotation layers may be applied regardless of the format inwhich the document 122 is stored or presented. Thus, an annotation layerthat was created for a copy of the document 122 using one format may beapplied to another copy of the document 122 that uses a differentformat. For example, an annotation layer may originally be created forthe document 122 by the first user at the first user device 210 in aword processing application, but the same annotation layer may be laterapplied to a static copy of the document 122 viewed by the second userat the second user device 220 using a graphical image viewing softwareapplication.

At block 612, the annotated document generated at block 610 may bepresented to the user via the display 812 of the first user device 210.When the annotated document includes two annotation layers 132 and 136(as illustrated in FIG. 1), presenting the annotated document mayinclude presenting the annotated display view 116 of the document 122,showing the document content 124, the annotations 134 and 138. Thereference 139 may be a transparent portion of the annotated display view116 that may facilitate user interaction to obtain information from theassociated external source, or it may be presented as a referenceindicator 118, as discussed above. The annotated document may bepresented to the user in any convenience format. In some embodiments,the annotated document may be presented in a special-purpose application(which may be or include the annotation application 212) configured topresent and receive annotations of documents. In other embodiments, theannotation application 214 may cause the annotated document to bepresented to the user in the document's native application or in apreview window, regardless of whether the native application or previewwindow is configured to accept or create new annotation layers. This maybe accomplished by use of macros, plug-ins, or other softwareinstructions adapted to operate with, or to be called by, the nativeapplication or preview window.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary annotation sharingmethod 700 for synchronizing annotations among multiple users. Forexample, the exemplary annotation sharing method 700 may be implementedto send an annotation made by a first user at the first user device 210to the server 240 and from the server 240 to a second user at the seconduser device 220. The document to be annotated may be presented to thefirst and second users at block 702. Upon receipt at the first userdevice 210 of an annotation from the first user at block 704, anannotation layer may be generated at block 706. The annotation layer maythen be sent to the server 240 at block 708, which may then send theannotation layer to the second user at block 710. At block 714, theannotation layer may be presented to the second user at the second userdevice 220. Because the first and second user devices 210 and 220 eachhave a copy of the document in their respective local memories 212 and222, only the annotation layer needs to be transmitted between thedevices. Although the following description of the exemplary annotationsharing method 700 refers to creating and sharing an annotation layer136 for the document 122 at the first user device 210 and sending theannotation layer 136 to be displayed at the second user device 220 forclarity, such description is not intended to be limiting. Any number ofannotation layers may be created and sent to any of a plurality of userdevices or servers for any of a plurality of documents.

At block 702, copies of the document 122 may be displayed to a firstuser of the first user device 210 and a second user of the second userdevice 220. The copies of the document 122 may be identical copies,different versions of the document 122, or copies in different formats.Each user device 210 or 220 may store a local copy of the document 122in the local memory 212 or 222, respectively. The copies presented tothe first and second users may include previously generated annotationsapplied using annotation layers, as discussed above. For example, thedocument 122 may be presented together with the annotation layer 132overlaid to present the annotation 134, as indicated in the annotateddisplay view 114.

At block 704, the first user may create a new annotation 138 at thefirst user device 210. As described above, the annotation 138 may bereceived from the first user at the first user device 210 via an input814. Upon receiving the annotation 138, the annotation application 214may generate the annotation layer 136, as discussed elsewhere herein. Insome embodiments, the annotation layer 136 may include a reference 139,which may be included in the annotation layer 136. Additionally,metadata 144 or other data may be associated with or included in theannotation layer 136.

At block 708, the annotation application 214 may cause the generatedannotation layer 136 to be transmitted via the network 230 using thecommunication module 216. In a preferred embodiment, the annotationapplication 214 may automatically cause the annotation layer 136 to betransmitted to the server 240 upon generating the annotation layer 136,without further user input. In some embodiments, such transmission maybe immediate; in other embodiments, the first user device 210 may sendannotation layers periodically to the server 240. In furtherembodiments, the first user may select an option to send the annotationlayer 136 to the server 240 or to the second user device 220 (e.g., bychoosing an option to upload, share, or sync the annotation layer 136).The annotation application 214 may package the annotation layer 136 fortransmission through the network 230. In some embodiments, this mayinclude packaging multiple annotation layer together in such a mannerthat they may be separated when received at the server 240 or the seconduser device 220. In a preferred embodiment, however, each annotationlayer 136 is separately sent from the first user device 210 to theserver 240 via the network 230, whereupon the server 240 stores theannotation layer 136 as a separate annotation layer 136 with the otherannotation layers 246 stored at the server 240.

Each annotation layer may thus be stored and transmitted separately fromthe document 122 with which it is associated, without transmission orstorage of the document 122 or a copy thereof. This greatly reduces theamount of data to be stored or transmitted via the network 230 andfacilitates efficient annotation of documents by multiple users.Moreover, the annotation layer 136 may be sent to the server 140 in astandard format that may be applied to the document 122 regardless ofthe format in which the document 122 is stored or presented at anotheruser device. The annotation layers may be transmitted and stored in anyconvenient manner. In some embodiments, each annotation layer may bestored as one or more entries in a table or database within orcommunicatively connected to the server 240. In further embodiments,each annotation layer may be stored as a separate file. In yet furtherembodiments, part of each annotation layer may be stored as a separatefile, which may be associated with or referenced by another file or anentry in a database.

At block 710, the annotation application 224 of the second user device220 may receive the annotation layer 136 via the network 230 using thecommunication module 326. In some embodiments, the annotation layer 136may be received from the server 240. In other embodiments, theannotation layer 136 may be received from the first user device 210through the network 230. The annotation layer 136 may be transmittedautomatically from the server 240 to the second user device 220 withouta request from the second user device 220 (e.g., it may be pushed to thesecond user device 220). In other embodiments, the second user device220 may poll the server 240 by requesting annotation layers associatedwith the document 122 from the server 240 via the network 230. Thereceived annotation layer 136 may be stored in the local memory 222 ofthe second user device 220. In some embodiments, additional metadataregarding the receipt of the annotation layer 136 may be added to themetadata 144 of the annotation layer 136 (e.g., date and time received).

At block 712, the annotation application 224 may apply the receivedannotation layer 136 to be applied to the document 122. Applying theannotation layer 136 to the document 122 may be accomplished asdiscussed elsewhere herein, particularly with respect to the annotationpresentation method 600. The annotation layer 136 may be applied in asimilar manner to the manner of applying an annotation layer generatedat the second user device 122 or an existing annotation layer stored inthe local memory 222 of the second user device 220. In some embodiments,the received annotation layer 136 may be assigned particular displaycharacteristics based upon the metadata associated with the annotationlayer 136. For example, the annotation 138 of the annotation layer 136may be displayed using a different color to indicate that the annotationlayer 136 was generated at the first user device 210 by the first user.

At block 714, the annotation application 224 may cause the annotateddocument to be presented to the second user via the display 812 of thesecond user device 220. When the annotated document to be presented tothe second user at the second user device 220 includes the document 122and the two annotation layers 132 and 136 (as illustrated in FIG. 1),presenting the annotated document may include presenting the annotateddisplay view 116, as discussed above. As noted, the annotated documentmay be presented in such a manner as to indicate that the annotation 138of the received annotation layer 136 was created by the first user onthe first user device 210, but use of a different color, comment bubble,or otherwise.

Exemplary System Configuration

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary computing system 800 for implementingthe methods as described herein. The exemplary computing system 800 maybe particularly used to implement the system 200 discussed above. Theexemplary computing system 800 includes front-end components 802 andback-end components 804, communicatively connected through the network230. The front-end components 802 may be disposed within user devices210 and 220, and the back-end components 804 may be disposed within oneor more servers 240. Each server 240 may further include or becommunicatively connected to one or more databases 846. Although theexample system 800 illustrates two user devices 210 and 220 and oneserver 240, it should be understood that the methods described hereinmay be implemented using any number of user devices or servers.Additionally, in some embodiments, portions of the system may beimplemented on separate servers 240 or computing devices 210 and 220.

The user devices 210 and 220 may each include a display 812, an input814, and a controller 816. The input 814 may include a “soft” keyboardthat is displayed on the display 812 of the user device 210 or 220, anexternal hardware keyboard communicating via a wired or a wirelessconnection (e.g., a Bluetooth keyboard), an external mouse, or any othersuitable user-input device. The controller 816 includes one or moreprocessors 820, a program memory 822, a RAM 824, and an I/O circuit 826,all of which are interconnected via an address/data bus 828. The programmemory 822 may include an operating system, a data storage, a pluralityof software applications, and a plurality of software routines. Theprogram memory 822 may also include the memory 212 or 222 storingdocuments and annotation layers, as well as software applications,routines, or scripts for implementing part or all of the methods 400-700above. The program memory 822 may store computer-readable instructionsor code associated with the annotation application 214 or 224 or withthe communication module 216 or 226. It should be appreciated thatalthough FIG. 8 depicts only one processor 820 in each controller 816,one or more controllers 816 may include multiple processors 820.Similarly, each controller 816 may include multiple program memories 822or multiple RAMs 824. Although the FIG. 8 depicts the I/O circuit 826 asa single block, the I/O circuit 826 may include a number of differenttypes of I/O circuits. The controllers 816 may implement the programmemories 822 or the RAMs 824 as semiconductor memories, magneticallyreadable memories, or optically readable memories, for example.

In some embodiments, the front-end components 802 may communicate withthe back-end components 804 via the network 230. The network 230 may bea proprietary network, a secure public internet, a virtual privatenetwork or some other type of network, such as dedicated access lines,plain ordinary telephone lines, satellite links, cellular data networks,combinations of these, etc. Where the network 230 comprises theInternet, data communications may take place over the network 230 via anInternet communication protocol.

The back-end components 804 may include one or more servers 240. Eachserver 240 may include one or more processors 862 adapted and configuredto execute various software applications, such as the server application242 or the web server application 244. As with the user devices 210 and220, the server 240 may include or be communicatively connected to oneor more displays 852 and inputs 854. The server 240 may further includea database 846, which may be adapted to store data related to thecomputing system 800, such as documents and annotation layers uploadedto the server 240 via the network 230. The server 240 may access datastored in the database 846 upon receiving a request for data from theuser devices 210 and 220. The server 240 may have a controller 855 thatis operatively connected to the database 846 via a link 845. It shouldbe noted that, while not shown, additional databases may be linked tothe controller 855 in a known manner. The controller 855 may include aprogram memory 860, a processor 862, a RAM 864, and an I/O circuit 866,all of which may be interconnected via an address/data bus 865. As withthe controllers 816, it should be appreciated that although only oneprocessor 862 is shown, the controller 855 may include multipleprocessors 862. Similarly, the memory of the controller 855 may includemultiple RAMs 864 and multiple program memories 860. The program memory860 may include software applications, routines, or scripts forimplementing part or all of the methods 400-700 above, particularlythose portions of the methods described above that involve storing ortransmitting documents or annotation layers. Although the I/O circuit866 is shown as a single block, it should be appreciated that the I/Ocircuit 866 may include a number of different types of I/O circuits. TheRAM 864 and program memories 860 may be implemented as semiconductormemories, magnetically readable memories, or optically readablememories, for example. The controller 855 may also be operativelyconnected to the network 230 via a link 835. The server 240 may furtherinclude a number of software applications stored in a program memory860.

In accordance with the systems and method described above, the exemplarycomputing system 800 may implement any of the foregoing methodsutilizing annotation layers or connectors associated with documents. Forexample, annotation or mark-up tools such as the annotation application214, the annotation application 224, the server application 242, the webserver application 244, or similar software tools may be implemented bythe processors 620 or 662 of the user devices 210 or 220 or the server240. In some embodiments, portions of the annotation or mark-up toolsmay be implemented by processors 620 or 662 of separate devicescommunicating via the network 230, as discussed above.

Additional Considerations

Throughout this specification, plural instances may implementcomponents, operations, or structures described as a single instance.Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustratedand described as separate operations, one or more of the individualoperations may be performed concurrently or in an order other than theorder illustrated, unless the context indicates otherwise. Structuresand functionality presented as separate components in exampleconfigurations may be implemented as a combined structure or component.Similarly, structures and functionality presented as a single componentmay be implemented as separate components. These and other variations,modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of thesubject matter herein.

Additionally, certain embodiments are described herein as includinglogic or a number of routines, subroutines, applications, modules, orinstructions. These may constitute either software (code embodied on anon-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium) or hardware. Inhardware, the routines, etc., are tangible units capable of performingcertain operations and may be configured or arranged in a certainmanner. In example embodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., astandalone, client or server computer system) or one or more hardwarecomponents of a computer system (e.g., a processor or a group ofprocessors) may be configured by software (e.g., an application orapplication portion) as a hardware module that operates to performcertain operations as described herein.

The performance of certain of the operations may be distributed amongthe one or more processors, not only residing within a single machine,but deployed across a number of machines. In some example embodiments,the one or more processors or processor-implemented modules may belocated in a single geographic location (e.g., within a homeenvironment, an office environment, or a server farm). In other exampleembodiments, the one or more processors or processor-implemented modulesmay be distributed across a number of geographic locations.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions herein using wordssuch as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,”“presenting,” “displaying,” or the like may refer to actions orprocesses of a machine (e.g., a computer) that manipulates or transformsdata represented as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, or optical)quantities within one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory,non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or othermachine components that receive, store, transmit, or displayinformation.

As used herein any reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular element, feature, structure, or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in variousplaces in the specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and“connected” along with their derivatives. For example, some embodimentsmay be described using the term “coupled” to indicate that two or moreelements are in direct physical or electrical contact. The term“coupled,” however, may also mean that two or more elements are not indirect contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interactwith each other. Communicative coupling of elements may includecontinuous, periodic, or asynchronous communication among the elements.The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,”“including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process,method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is notnecessarily limited to only those elements but may include otherelements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method,article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary,“or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example,a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true(or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or notpresent) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (orpresent).

In addition, use of the “a” or “an” are employed to describe elementsand components of the embodiments herein. This is done merely forconvenience and to give a general sense of the description. Thisdescription, and the claims that follow, should be read to include oneor at least one and the singular also includes the plural unless it isobvious that it is meant otherwise.

This detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and doesnot describe every possible embodiment, as describing every possibleembodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. One could implementnumerous alternate embodiments, using either current technology ortechnology developed after the filing date of this application.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer system, comprising: one or moreservers, each having one or more processors; a program memory of atleast one of the one or more servers, which program memory storesexecutable instructions that when executed by the one or more processorscause the one or more servers to: receive an electronic document;receive an indication of a plurality of user computing devicescommunicatively connected to the one or more servers via a network, eachof the plurality of user computing devices having a copy of theelectronic document stored in a local memory; receive a connector objectcomprising (i) a first annotation layer, (ii) a second annotation layer,and (iii) a directional link from the first annotation layer to thesecond annotation layer, generated at a first user computing device ofthe plurality of user computing devices via the network, wherein thefirst annotation layer is associated with the electronic document andincludes information describing an annotation of the electronic documentby a first user of the first user computing device, and wherein thedirectional link comprises a link from a user-selectable reference ofthe first annotation layer to a target annotation of the secondannotation layer, such that a user selecting the user-selectablereference of the first annotation displayed over the electronic documentcauses the target annotation of the second annotation layer to bedisplayed over a second electronic document associated with the secondannotation layer; determine a second user computing device of theplurality of user computing devices to receive the connector object; andtransmit the connector object to the second user computing device viathe network, wherein transmitting the connector object does not includetransmitting either the electronic document or a copy of the electronicdocument.
 2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the executableinstructions further cause the one or more servers to store the receivedconnector object in the program memory.
 3. The computer system of claim1, wherein the second annotation layer includes a reference to thesecond electronic document.
 4. The computer system of claim 3, whereinthe executable instructions further cause the one or more servers to:obtain a copy of the second electronic document; store the copy of thesecond electronic document in the program memory; and transmit the copyof the second electronic document to the second user computing device.5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein: the connector objectincludes metadata regarding generation of the connector object; and theexecutable instructions that cause the one or more servers to determinethe second user computing device to receive the connector object causethe one or more processors to determine the second computing devicebased at least in part upon the metadata.
 6. The computer system ofclaim 1, wherein the first annotation layer is independent of a formatof the electronic document.
 7. The computer system of claim 1, whereinthe first annotation layer includes (I) an image of the annotation, (ii)an indication of a coordinate space of the electronic document, and(iii) a position of the image of the annotation within the coordinatespace.
 8. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storingexecutable instructions for implementing an electronic document mark-uptool, which, when executed by one or more processors of a computersystem, causes the computer system to: receive a first electronicdocument; receive from a user an indication of a connection between aportion of the first electronic document and a second electronicdocument; generate a connector object indicating a connection between afirst annotation layer associated with the portion of the firstelectronic document and a second annotation layer associated with thesecond electronic document, wherein the connector object includes (i)the first annotation layer, (ii) the second annotation layer, and (iii)a directional link from the first annotation layer to the secondannotation laver, wherein the directional link comprises a link from auser-selectable reference of the first annotation layer to a targetannotation of the second annotation layer, such that a user selectingthe user-selectable reference of the first annotation displayed over thefirst electronic document causes the target annotation of the secondannotation layer to be displayed over the second electronic document,and wherein the connector object is separate from each of the first andsecond electronic documents; apply the first annotation layer of theconnector object to the first electronic document such that anindication of the connection overlays the portion of the firstelectronic document, wherein the connector object and the firstelectronic document remain separate and wherein the indication of theconnection comprises the user-selectable reference; present the firstelectronic document and the overlaid indication of the connection to theuser via a display of the computer system; receive from the user aselection of the indication of the connection; and present the secondelectronic document to the user in response to receiving the selectionof the indication of the connection.
 9. The tangible, non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first electronicdocument and the second electronic document are different types of thefollowing document types: word processing documents, publication layoutdocuments, unformatted text documents, web pages, image-based documents,slide presentations, or spreadsheets.
 10. The tangible, non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein: the indication of theconnection includes an indication of a target portion of the secondelectronic document, and the second annotation layer indicates thetarget portion of the second electronic document.
 11. The tangible,non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein: the firstannotation layer includes information regarding a coordinate space ofthe first electronic document, and the executable instructions furthercause the computer system to apply the first annotation layer of theconnector object to the first electronic document based upon theinformation regarding the coordinate space of the first electronicdocument.
 12. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 8, wherein the executable instructions further cause the computersystem to: apply the second annotation layer of the connector object tothe second electronic document such that a reverse indication of theconnection overlays at least a portion of the second electronicdocument, wherein the connector object and the second electronicdocument remain separate; present the second electronic document and theoverlaid reverse indication of the connection to the user via thedisplay of the computer system; receive from the user a selection of thereverse indication of the connection; and present the portion of thefirst electronic document having the overlaid indication of theconnection to the user in response to receiving the selection of thereverse indication of the connection.
 13. The tangible, non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein each of the firstannotation layer and the second annotation layer includes (i) an imageof an annotation, (ii) an indication of a coordinate space of therespective first electronic document or the second electronic document,and (iii) a position of the image of the annotation within thecoordinate space.
 14. A computer-implemented method, comprising:receiving, at one or more processors, an electronic document; receiving,at the one or more processors, an indication of a plurality of usercomputing devices communicatively connected to the one or moreprocessors via a network, each of the plurality of user computingdevices having a copy of the electronic document stored in a localmemory; receiving, at the one or more processors, a connector objectcomprising (i) a first annotation layer, (ii) a second annotation layer,and (iii) a directional link from the first annotation layer to thesecond annotation layer, generated at a first user computing device ofthe plurality of user computing devices via the network, wherein thefirst annotation layer is associated with the electronic document andincludes information describing an annotation of the electronic documentby a first user of the first user computing device, and wherein thedirectional link comprises a link from a user-selectable reference ofthe first annotation layer to a target annotation of the secondannotation layer, such that a user selecting the user-selectablereference of the first annotation displayed over the electronic documentcauses the target annotation of the second annotation layer to bedisplayed over a second electronic document associated with the secondannotation layer; determining, by the one or more processors, a seconduser computing device of the plurality of user computing devices toreceive the connector object; and transmitting, by the one or moreprocessors, the connector object to the second user computing device viathe network, wherein transmitting the connector object does not includetransmitting either the electronic document or a copy of the electronicdocument.
 15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein thesecond annotation layer includes a reference to the second electronicdocument.
 16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, furthercomprising: obtaining, by the one or more processors, a copy of thesecond electronic document; storing, in a memory associated with the oneor more processors, the copy of the second electronic document; andtransmitting, by the one or more processors, the copy of the secondelectronic document to the second user computing device via the network.17. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein: the connectorobject includes metadata regarding generation of the connector object;and determining the second user computing device to receive theconnector object includes determining the second computing device basedat least in part upon the metadata.
 18. The computer-implemented methodof claim 14, wherein the first annotation layer is independent of aformat of the electronic document.
 19. The computer-implemented methodof claim 14, wherein the first annotation layer includes (i) an image ofthe annotation, (ii) an indication of a coordinate space of theelectronic document, and (iii) a position of the image of the annotationwithin the coordinate space.